Adaptive Facades, Developed with Innovative Nanomaterials, for a Sustainable Architecture in the Mediterranean Area

To respond at the European Directive 2002/91 on the energy performance of buildings, so to build a new generation of nearly zero energy buildings and, at the same time, to reduce the high emission and tiny air pollution particles, a challenging input is developing a new generation of multifunctional, adaptive and dynamic facades. These novel envelope systems allow answering the necessity to improve the indoor environmental quality and to facilitate the exploitation of renewable energy sources at the building scale. Adaptive building envelopes can be considered, in fact, the next big milestone in facade technology because they are able to interact with the environment and the user by reacting to external influences and adapting their behaviour and functionality. The paper presents the research SELFIE that is focused on design, testing and construction of a smart facade system where will be possible to integrate new technological components of envelope. The innovative “SELFIE system” will be built, in fact, with smart materials and novel technologies to produce clean energy and decrease total consumption of the new and/or existing buildings. Furthermore, the components of the “SELFIE system” will be designed as preassembled elements that will be possible to compose in a modular facade to make new buildings envelope or replace the wall and windows in the existing ones. In detail, the work introduces the research methodology used to develop the first design concept of the “SELFIE system”, with the objective to improve the knowledge in the field of adaptive facades and innovative technologies, able to increase the energy performances of the buildings located in the Mediterranean area.